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How to Sabotage a Scrum Master

How to Sabotage a Scrum Master: 44 Anti-Patterns From the Trenches To Avoid

One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Master classes is how to best sabotage a Scrum Master as a member of the middle management. The exercise rules are simple: You’re not allowed to use any form of illegal activity. Therefore, outsourcing the task to a bunch of outlaws is out of the question. Instead, you are only allowed to use practices that are culturally acceptable within your organization.

Read on and learn more on how to best sabotage a Scrum Master from the exercise results of more than ten PSM I and PSM II classes. (I slightly edited the suggestions for better readability.)

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A Guide to Modern-Day Project Management and Tech Tools

In its essence, project management is the ability to make people come together and strive for a common goal while managing available resources. This has been happening for a long time. From the construction of historic monuments like the pyramids to any modern piece of infrastructure, project management has been used in one way or another over the years, and not just in construction.

Formally, project management as a concept started in manufacturing environments after the second world war in the 1950s. Since the need to break down complex tasks into manageable items and efficiently manage resources was widely felt, project management quickly expanded and became essential for almost all sectors.

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Be An Effective Change Agent – Four Tips From a Software Architect

A primary requirement for a software organization today is to be able to introduce and maintain change at the speed of business. Driving innovation for any organization is no mean feat, but as holders of technical roadmaps, design patterns, and engineering practices, it is central to an architect’s role.

The ability to change software is holistically dependent on the software design as well as the systems, processes, and teams responsible for delivering it.  Architects must consider how to innovate across this landscape. That requires an understanding not only of the technologies and processes that can enable change, but also the complexities of adoption, both from a technical and organizational standpoint. 

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The Things I Love and Use from Java 11

Hey, tea lovers! Let us see what Java is providing to keep up with the latest trend or requirement. I will be going over the things I think has really improved the productivity of the developer since Java 11. We will talk about Java 11 only since it is LTS (Long Term Support) version and many people are using this only until next LTS. Make your tea to sip and code with Java 11.

Change Is Constant

As you know, Java has settled on a unique release strategy, every 6 months a new version will be released. Not only that, but the licensing is also changed. To use Oracle JDK, you need a separate license for production, however, you can use it free for development purposes. No worries, You can also use OpenJDK as an opensource option. I myself is using OpenJDK.

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Adaptive Change Management: A DevOps Approach to Change Management

Change management is another example of an ITIL-based process which can be significantly improved by the application of DevOps practices. Change management is often implemented in ways which fly in the face of key principles of DevOps. Traditional implementations put multiple layers of approval in place for every change, inserting significant bureaucracy and gates which almost guarantee longer release cycles and delays in getting value to the customer. This fundamentally contradicts the DevOps emphasis of short release cycles and the rapid delivery of value to customers. 

However, there can be little argument that tracking changes in a technical environment can be highly valuable. Especially in large environments where many different changes are occurring at the same time, it is critical to have visibility into what is changing and how those changes might impact one another and, ultimately, the end customer. By bringing DevOps principles to bear on change management we can ensure we are tracking and managing changes while enabling speed and agility. 

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Are You Circumventing Change?

Learn more about developing leadership traits.

I had two part-time jobs while I attended college.  The first was in the computer lab for the College of Business Administration.  The second was working as a sound engineer at a local recording studio.  I can't stress enough how important both of these jobs were for me — providing life lessons that were on par with the lessons I learned in earning my degree.

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Balancing People, Process, and Technology for a True Agile Transformation

Before your company can stretch its Agile wings, it has to transform and learn to fly.

Agile is more than an individual framework; it is a journey of cultural change within an organization based upon continuous improvement. As an Agile transformational consultant, I am an agent of change for our clients. As Agilists, it is our job to help our clients see Agile for what it is and most importantly, what it is not.

Why Agile Fails: The PA-SA-WAKA-DA Theory

I find it very amusing that the first question from a client usually surrounds what tools we are going to use to lead their transformation. Many ask if they can continue to use Jira or some other tool they have grown accustomed to.

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When Scaling Agile Is Not the Answer

Scaling may seem like the obvious choice, but when it comes to Agile, not so fast.

At the Influential Agile Leader workshop earlier this year, I led a session about scaling, and how it might not be the answer. My experience is that when people use frameworks for larger efforts, they experience these unexpected side effects:

  • The framework actions often require more manager-type people to control the actions of others.
  • The framework creates less throughput, not more.
Agile Scaling Frameworks: An Executive Summary

One of the participants asked, "But what if we have to scale?"